Practice

Word Processing

Of all computer applications, word processing is the most common. To

perform word processing, you need a computer, a special program called a
word processor, and a printer. A word processor enables you to create a
document, store it electronically on a disk, display it on a screen, modify it by
entering commands and characters from the keyboard, and print it on a
printer.

Advantages of a Word Processor

The great advantage of word processing over using a typewriter is that you can make
changes without retyping the entire document. If you make a typing mistake, you simply
back up the cursor and correct your mistake. If you want to delete a paragraph, you
simply remove it, without leaving a trace. It is equally easy to insert a word, sentence, or
paragraph in the middle of a document. Word processors also make it easy to move
sections of text from one place to another within a document, or between documents.
When you have made all the changes you want, you can send the file to a printer to get
a hardcopy.

The following are examples of word processing software;

• Notepad
• WordPad
• Microsoft Word

Uses
Uses of a Word Processor include:
• Authors who write books and scripts for films.
• Lawyers who produce legal documents and contracts.
• Secretaries who write letters.
• Mail order companies who send out the same letters addressed to different
customers.
• Students who write their assignments.

Features of a Word Processor

Insert text: Allows you to insert text anywhere in the document.

Delete text: Allows you to erase characters, words, lines, or pages as easily as you can
cross them out on paper.

Cut and paste : Allows you to remove (cut) a section of text from one place in a
document and insert (paste) it somewhere else.

Copy : Allows you to duplicate a section of text.

Word Wrap: The word processor automatically moves to the next line when you have
filled one line with text, and it will readjust text if you change the margins.

Print: Allows you to send a document to a printer to get hardcopy.

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File management: Many word processors contain file management capabilities that
allow you to create, delete, move, and search for files.

Font specifications: Allows you to change fonts within a document. For example, you
can specify bold, italics, and underlining. Most word processors also let you change the
font size and even the typeface.

Graphics: Allows you to embed illustrations and graphs into a document. Some word
processors let you create the illustrations within the word processor; others let you insert
an illustration produced by a different program.

Headers and Footers: Allows you to specify customized headers and footers that the
word processor will put at the top and bottom of every page. For example the word
processor automatically keeps track of page numbers so that the correct number
appears on each page.

Layout: Allows you to specify different margins within a single document and to specify
various methods for indenting paragraphs.

Thesaurus: A built-in thesaurus that allows you to search for synonyms without leaving
the word processor.

Windows: Allows you to edit two or more documents at the same time. Each document
appears in a separate window. This is particularly valuable when working on a large
project that consists of several different files.

Word Wrap: This is the ability of a word processor to start a new line while typing a
paragraph. If the paragraph does not fit in one line, the word is wrapped automatically to
the next line. This makes typing faster.

Page Setup

Allows you to define various page sizes and margins, and the word processor will
automatically readjust the text so that it fits.

Choose File | Page Setup

From the Page Setup dialogue box;

Choose Margins to edit page margins

Choose Paper Size

To edit the height
and width of each page

AND

to change Orientation of page

Portrait

Landscape
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Spell Check

In a word-processor the document can be scanned by a spelling checker and it draws

the attention to possible spelling mistakes. Spell checkers can supply the correct
spelling though the user decides whether to replace the 'spelling mistake' with e
suggested word or not. Spell checkers are not foolproof (e.g. typing 'where' instead of
'were' is not considered as a spelling mistake).

By default, word checks the spelling of all the text entered

in a document. A wavy red zigzag line appears
underneath those words that are not found in the
dictionary.
By clicking with the right mouse button on a marked word,
you will get a pop-up menu listing any suggestions.
Words such a Marika, Brincat and Zurrieq are not included
in the dictionary. You can ignore the spelling by clicking
on Ignore. You can also add new words to the dictionary
by clicking on Add.

Go to the Spelling and Grammar option by choosing Tools |

Spelling and Grammar

You can also press the icon from the Standard toolbar or press F7

Find and Replace

This is the ability to have the word processor search for a particular word or phrase in a
document and replace it with something else.

Go to the Find or Replace option by choosing Edit | Find or

Edit | Replace

Type word or phrase you want to find

Type here word or phrase you want to

replace with

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Mail Merge
This is the ability to merge together a word processed
letter and a list of names and addresses (from a data
base) so as to generate a multiple 'personalised'
copies of the same letter. A letter can be prepared
using a word processor. Fields like Name, Surname,
Address can be inserted from a database. When mail
merge is done, the fields are replaced by the data
item brought up from the database.

OLE

Object Linking and Embedding. The object to be linked and embedded can be a clipart,
picture and graph. The graph can be created using a spreadsheet and then copied and
pasted in a word processor. The graph is pasted in a special way such that a link is
created between the spreadsheet and the word processor such that if the data is
changed from the spreadsheet, the graph in the word processor is changed immediately
as soon as the data changes.

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Word Processing – Additional Features

Styles

The word processor has built in styles that the user can use with ease. The text can be
formatted as a Heading 1 style, or in Normal style. This means that the text is given a
specific font, font size, and other formatting attributes depending on the style chosen.
For example, instead of taking three separate steps to format your title as 16 pt, Arial,
and center-aligned, you can achieve the same result in one step by applying the Title
style.

Using predefined styles

In order to apply a predefined style to a particular object:

1. Select the text you wish you apply a style to

2. Select a style from the Formatting Toolbar

3. The selected text will have the style applied to it.

Note that the Style combo-box only contains a few commonly used styles. If you want to
apply a style that is not available in the Style combo-box, go to the Format menu and
select Style…

This will bring up the Style dialog box. From here one can apply an existing style, modify
an existing style, delete a style or create a new style altogether.

Changing predefined styles

If you need to change the way a particular style looks, you need to:

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1. Go to the Style dialog by clicking Format |

Style…

2. Select the style you want to change from

the list

3. Click modify to bring up the Modify Style

dialog

From here you can change the format of the

chosen style be clicking on the Format menu
and selecting the attribute you want to
change…

Using the document map

If you have formatted your document using header styles (i.e. Header 1, Header 2, etc),
you can view the structure of your document using the document map. The document
map basically shows you an outline of the headers in your document.

To access the document map, click on the icon on the toolbar or select View |
Document Map.

The document map will appear on the left of the screen:

If you click on any item in the document map, the cursor position in the document also
changes to reflect that choice.

Table of Contents
The word processor has a facility of creating a table of contents based on the styles
given to headings and sub-headings. Pages are found and listed automatically in a
table.

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Create a table of contents

To create a table of contents:

1. Position the cursor at the point

where you want to put the table
of contents
2. From the Insert menu choose
Index and tables…
3. A dialog should pop up. Select
the Table of Contents tab
4. From here you can set different
options about the type of table
you want to create
5. When ready, press OK and the
table will be inserted into the
document

The outcome should be something similar to the screenshot below…

Update an existing table of contents

If your document changes, it is likely that the table of contents will become outdated. If
this happens, you need to update it. To do this you have to:

1. Right-click on the table

2. Select Update Field

Index
Important words in a document can be marked and then the word processor can be used
to generate an index, showing all marked words sorted in alphabetical order together
with the pages where they can be found.

Select words from the document to put in an index

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To add a word/phrase to the index:

1. Select the word / phrase

2. Press Alt-Shift-X and this dialog box should appear

3. There are a number of options you can play around

with. When you’re finished, press Mark and the term
will be added to the index.

Creating an index

Once you have marked your terms, you can create the index:

1. Position the cursor at the point were you want the index inserted
2. From the Insert menu choose Index and tables…
3. Select the Index tab
4. Customise the options to your liking and press OK

Updating an index

If your document changes, it is likely that the index will become outdated. If this
happens, you need to update it. To do this you have to:

1. Right-click on the index

2. Select Update Field

Multi-Columns
With Microsoft Word, you can also format your document into newspaper-style columns.

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Separating a selected section of text document into columns

To separate a selection of text into multiple columns:

1. Select the text

2. Click and hold on the icon from the toolbar.
3. A graphic that allows you to select the number of columns should
appear. Make your choice and release the mouse button.

Balance the text between columns

If the last column is much shorter than the previous ones, you need to balance out your
columns. To do this:

1. In page layout view, click at the end of the columns you want to balance
2. On the Insert menu, click Break
3. Click continuous

Word inserts a continuous section break, which balances the text equally among the
columns.

Create vertical lines between

columns

It is also possible to draw vertical lines

between the columns. This can be done as
follows:

1. Select the text

2. Choose Format | Columns
3. Make sure the Line between checkbox
is checked

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